Chicago’s Oldest & Largest

If you’re a fellow bibliophile, and you’re in Chicago (for whatever reason), you have to visit Myopic Books! True to our title, it’s Chicago’s oldest and largest used bookstore. Packed tight into an old brownstone on Milwaukee Avenue in the heart of Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood, Myopic has three floors fully-loaded with used books. They seem to cover every possible surface, which makes sense considering they boast over 80,000 editions.

Google Street View

The staff is very friendly, always greeting visitors with a happy hello and available to answer questions. And if you visit you may have a question or two, since it’s a bit of a book maze inside. But that’s part of the fun! You weave through tight, makeshift hallways lined with books and the air smells like well-loved paperbacks. There’s nothing better, right?

And you’re likely to find a great deal. Myopic is pretty particular about the books they buy. Most of their selection ends up looking fairly unused since they weed-out any books that have taken too much damage.

But even though they’re choosy, they have a great selection! They carry a variety of choices in fiction, art, architecture, music, film, philosophy, science, religion, psychology, literary criticism, mythology, children’s, cooking, sci-fi, biography and local history/interest… and tons more. And if you visit during walk-in buying hours (Friday evenings or all-day Saturday) you can sell one, and buy one… so you can walk-out guilt-free and conserving space on that over-flowing bookshelf.

They’re open 7 days a week from 9am to 11pm, so next time you’re in the neighborhood make sure to stop in and let us know what you thought!